The Golf Channel pundits filled the airwaves with predictions about how meek little Merion, at less than 7000 yards, could not stand up to the swift kicks of the best players in the world armed with the technology of the day.  This was going to be a major with scores in the low sixties, maybe 20-under as a winning score.  Tiger, Rory, Adam, and others were going to have their way with it and this was going to be a U.S. Open in Greenbrier Classic clothing.

Visiting the grounds of Merion on Friday it was obvious to me that the golf gods were not going to have any of this.  With the help of the Mike Davis and the USGA set-up operatives, the intrinsic defenses of this classic design have stood sturdy and challenged the patience of these competitors.  Any of them that believed this would be a short stroll in the park have been rudely awakened by the Merion reality.

The landing area on the blind tee shot on 11 looked like you could not parallel park four VWs in the allotted space.  Deep confining bunkers like on the short 350-yard 8th forced players to play long iron-sand wedge into a green the size of a quarter set on it’s side.  This hilly piece of real estate gave players awkward side hill billy goat stances even in the middle of the fairway.  The green complexes provided the real teeth-steep fall offs shoulders, savage furry bunkering, and serious pitch and yaw to augment the streaking green speeds.

In the final chapter the bulldog at Merion left some torn cuffs and a few open sores on the ankles of those competing for the U.S. Open crown.

The array of holes and their sequencing made building a scorecard an existential experience.  Two opportunity par fives, the only par fives of the day, come in the first four holes.  The second one was over 600 yards and has a fortress green ringed by deep bunkering fronted by a crossing brook.  The front pin was particularly difficult to negotiate, even with a sand wedge in hand, so birdies would be dear there on Sunday.

Steve Stricker fell victim to the Open pressure on the par five 2nd with two balky swings leading to a double OB experience and a triple bogie that dashed his chances for the day.

At 504 and 487 yards respectively, the two par fours at 5 and 6 played a cumulative 9 strokes for the average player, so this is where the wheels could come off early in the round.  The side slant on the 5th green toward the creek front left can generate a 12-foot break on a par saving putt.

The tee boxes at the par threes at 3 and 9 were pushed back to 256 and 236 yards-pros were hitting three woods and drivers at the back pins on the 3rd.  Again, a tight proximity of Cobb’s Creek to the front pin position on 9 made it into a risk reward par three on the final day.

Luke Donald and Charl Schwartzel butchered the front nine in 42 strokes each to end their Open dreams.  Charl would not have beat a Pro-Am partner playing 3 thru 10 with six bogies and a double on 6.  All the “Loooooook” cheers were stifled with his five bogies and a double on 6 in the same stretch.

The crowd noise opportunities were in the middle of the round.  Short holes at 7, 8, 10, and 11 all seem to be scoring chances but these holes have serious technical difficulties that require impeccable execution to set off any fan bedlam.  The ribbon thin 11th is where Bobby Jones closed out the last match of the U.S. Amateur to finish his historic Grand Slam at Merion in 1930.

Jason Day managed to capture the attention of crowd with a couple of birdies on 8 and 10.   But he rinsed his approach into the narrow opening on 11 and two more bogies down the stretch left him two strokes too far to seriously contend.

Maybe the testimony to the quirky character of Merion was to be the 115 yard pitch and putt par three 13th.  An on-level pitch to a green the size of your big toe nail, the players cannot see the surface of the green because it is obscured by a Groucho Marx brow on the top of the front bunker.  It should be a certain birdie hole to anyone with their name stenciled on the side of their bag, but miscues into any of the green side bunkers makes par an elusive score.

Champagne Phil had successfully walked the leader tight rope with doubles on 3 and 5, a birdie on 4, and, in a pure Phil moment, holing out for eagle two from the fairway on 10.  But the enigmatic 13^th took it’s toll as Phil air mailed a wedge into the high grass behind the green and it was all he could do to make a bogie and stay in touch.

The final leg at Merion, starting at number 14, can break down the sternest competitor and those able to avoid the train wrecks through the quarry holes would be the ones with a chance to hoist this piece of silver.

The harrowing OB on the left of 15 haunted Sergio three times on Saturday on his way to a 10 on this par four taking him from one under to five over for the day and putting a fork into any hopes he might have of contending on Sunday.  Hunter Mahan was hovering around the lead Sunday with a steady hand on the tiller until he made double on 15 with two shots wayward right, followed by bogies on the two difficult closing holes.

Phil made one more costly unforced error on 15.  He took the bold driving line up the right and had a stock gap wedge from about 130 for a birdie chance that would have given him a chance to tie for the lead.  It came up 10% air and the severe slope of this green sucked his approach all the way back to the front edge leaving him a pitch off the green surface and two putts for the bogie that was the final nail in his Open coffin this year.

Justin Rose kept the feisty dog at bay showing unperturbed patience through the roller coaster experience of the first sixteen holes.  Successfully playing the Kitzbuhel drop to a long, narrow undulating tongue of a green on the par three 17^th and negotiating two text book Hogan-esque shots into the impossible finishing hole, Rose came out with his trousers in tact to wrap his arms around his first coveted major trophy.

Dash the prognostications of those Golf Channel pundits.  As we all saw today….it is the size of the fight in the dog.

June, 2013

I can assure you that Shigeki Maruyama, the man with the telegenic smile and the matchie-matchie outfits, has not forgotten that June Monday in 2000 when he shot 29-29-58 on the South Course at Woodmont Country Club in the U.S. Open Regional Qualifying for 100th edition of the USGA summer party at Pebble Beach.

Shigeki first blipped on the international golf radar screen in the 1998 President’s Cup when he went 5 and 0 in that year’s matches.  Springboarding off of nine wins on the Japanese Tour he had a couple of high finishes in WGC events the next year that helped him earn access to the PGA Tour.  Playing full time in America after that he won three times-Greater Milwaukee in 2001 in a playoff with Charles Howell, Byron Nelson in 2002, and the Chrysler Classic in Greensboro in 2003.

Splitting the uprights with a seismic 58 ( Allsport)

That grey morning at Woodmont, with rain showers threatening his afternoon round on the more difficult North Course, Shigeki was determined to go low and put something in reserve before the afternoon lap.

What he did was simply astonishing.  Two pars on the opening holes and then he put his foot to the floor making 11 birdies and an eagle over the next sixteen.  Guess the course fit his eye.  It included holing his wedge from 96 yards on the par four ninth for an eagle and the exclamation point of hitting the long par five eighteenth in two (remember this was 2000 before the techno geeks got to the maximum COR on the fairway metals making this routine) setting up a two-putt birdie and his second 29 of the day.

Worth a thousand words……… (photo by Zowl Productions)

He cruised home with a two-over 74 on the North after lunch and easily qualified at 132 two shots behind David Berganio the medalist for the day.

We have staged the U.S. Open Regional at Woodmont for decades with PGA Tour pros of all calibers participating and no one else has come close to doing what “the Smiling Assassin” did that June morning.  The notoriety is a bit infamous from the standpoint of our members but it was great theater for those who witnessed his folkloric round.

June, 2013

Colt Knost flew in some rarified air for an amateur in 2007 when he won three USGA titles in the same year- the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Public Links, and was a member of the victorious Walker Cup Team.  Only the immortal Bobby Jones and the great Jay Sigel had done this before him.

Jason Sobel of the Golf Channel reports that to commemorate this accomplishment the USGA asked Knost to donate one of his clubs that helped him win those three titles.  Maybe with his sardonic tongue planted firmly against his cheek Colt volunteered to donate his Scotty Cameron belly putter to put on display in the USGA Golf House.

A live shot. …..this puppy looks like it can still do some damage.

Now you cynics out there will say Colt is taking a shot at the recent USGA and R & A ruling that bans the use of these formerly legal putting implements.  But from where I sit this is just a reverse case of Paying Forward…..it is called Paying Backward…..just a man with a philanthropic heart and a point to make.

Personally I can’t wait to read the inscription the USGA puts on the plaque under this piece of memorabilia.

May, 2013

Weekley’s loveable namesake

Chants of “Boooooooooooo” were cascading through the tree lined alcoves of Colonial Country Club all day Sunday as Boo Weekley put on a shot making clinic on his way to winning his third PGA tour event at the Crowne Plaza Invitational.  If there are horses for courses than Boo looks looks good in a tartan horse blanket because his previous two wins at Harbour Town and this one at Colonial have been on courses requiring driving accuracy, precise iron play, and a taste for a little something in a tartan plaid sports jacket.

It was a bit of a roller coaster for Boo who made two birdies and two bogies in the first seven holes.  He then went on a tear with birdies at 8, 9, and 10 and buried a 22-footer at 14 to take the lead for good at 14-under.  His iron play all day was so precise he was knocking down flags sticks coming down the stretch like star high school quarterback takes out stacks of milk bottles at a Midway.

But as Feherty and McCord were saying all day Boo is one of the best ball strikers out there.  Other pros stop behind his slot on the driving range to just listen to the pure sound of the ball coming off the center of the club face time after time.  He showed this in full flourish with umpteen opportunities for birdie on the back nine today.  If he could putt a lick he would have won by six.  Unfortunately for Boo he has a bit of Roberto Duran’s “hands of stone” when it comes to plying the flat stick.

The affable Boo has been a crowd favorite since his popular appearance in the Ryder Cup in 2008 but he has not won in five years.  Finally moving past a number of injuries that have hampered him the last few years he has been on a mini-tear this year making 12 of 14 cuts and finishing top ten three times on his way to winning over $900,000.  The $1.1 million he raked in for today’s win and moved him into 6th place in the FedEx Cup Standings.

Matt Kuchar, the leader going into the final round, was Boo’s stiffest competition but his game was a bit out of round in a number of areas today and he wobbled home with a 68, never really threatening the lead, to lose by one.  He must have gotten a bit tired of the droning of Boooooooooos that he was hearing  in front of him all day.

May, 2013

After his wet and wild performance on the 17th at the 2013 Players Championship Sergio Garcia should fully expect to be served a notice of copyright infringement by Kevin Costner’s lawyer for impersonating to the tee Roy McAvoy, Costner’s character in Tin Cup.

And people wonder why Sergio is not a great champion?  Simply because he is incapable of thinking like one. Like McAvoy in Tin Cup, Sergio is his own worst enemy.

The two greatest champions of the Modern Era, the Golden Bear and the Tiger, have played the major championships-all five of them-with a plan….a simple plan.  Don’t beat yourself.

Nicklaus has said on many occasions that he won more majors by letting the others lose them.  His philosophy on tough Sunday pin placements at the major championships was to play at the center of the green and try to curve it in the direction of the flag position.  If it didn’t move he had a 25-footer from the center of the green.  If it did move he might have a putt at a birdie.

Tiger on his way to 14 majors has always played the percentages.  Don’t take chances if you do not need to.  He only wins about 90% of the time if he is leading after 54 holes because he knows that if he can play aggressively the first few holes on Sunday and build a lead of 3 or 4 he can put it on autopilot-hit fairways and greens-and cruise to the trophy presentation making par after par while others crash and burn trying to catch him.

The final round in The Players was a perfect example.  Tiger played the first seven holes to get to 13-under and the lead.  He added one more birdie on 12 to get to 14-under and all of a sudden was 3 clear of the field with six holes to play.  Even after an uncharacteristic stumble on 14 when he balloon hooked what was supposed to be a stinger 3-wood into the water off the tee and made double he just drubbed the field with all pars and one more birdie coming in.

Most telling was that when he hit it in the heavy rough on 16 he found a way to muscle a long iron about 230 into the front bunker from which he knew he had a good chance to get up and down for a birdie and get back to 13-under.  He then stood on the tee at the treacherous Island 17th and aimed at the center of the green, ignoring the sucker pin hanging out over the water.    There was no way he was aiming at that pin.  Another par….one step closer to the trophy.  Splitting the fairway on 18 he took dead aim at an accessible flag to try to squeeze one more stroke out of the course.  His birdie putt edged the hole…one more par…one step closer to the trophy.

Now we have El Nimnod, one hole behind Tiger watching his every move and ignoring the example.  He too made a birdie on 16 to get it to 13-under and tie for the lead.  Standing on the tee at 17….looking at the inaccessible flag waving over Pete and Alice’s Pond….McAvoy, I mean Sergio, could not bring himself to aim at the center of the green and avoid pushing the self-destruct button.  His thought was, this hole has been good to me over the years why not put the tournament away right here.  Dunking two in a row into the water put it away alright as he headed for the 18th tee three out of the lead, handing Tiger the trophy.

The final three holes at Sawgrass have a simple algorithm, especially on Sunday.  Find a way to make a four on sixteen or you will lose a shot to the field.  Hit it left of the flag on seventeen to make sure you still have a shot to win on the last.  Split the fairway on eighteen, don’t visit the water on the left or the rough on the right and you will have a chance to go hunting for what is always an accessible flag.

What the pros say about Thursday at most events, you cannot win the event on Thursday but you can certainly lose it, applies to the 17th at Sawgrass on Sunday.  True champions understand that you cannot win the tournament on 17 in regulation but you can certainly lose it there.

After two decades on the Tour El Nimnod has still not grasped this lesson and once again proved he lacks the discipline and judgement to be a great champion.  It is apparent to me that being a great champion is something he will never grow into.

May, 2013

One thing you can say about Lefty is that he thoroughly embraces the “fix du jour” for his golf game.  He is more optimistic than a door-to-door soliciting evangelist when it comes to whether the claw, the Super Stroke putting grip, or, now, the Phrankenwood is going to deliver his beleaguered golf game from the rubbish pile back to the mountain top.

After two rounds at the Wells Fargo Championship it looks like Phranken from the tee is making his putter respond…..you can connect those dots yourself.  His 28-under win at the Waste Management was inspirational and a third at the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral are the lone season highlights in an otherwise journeyman’s performance so far this season.

Phil has been fiddling away with the technology trying to find the elusive consistency that can bring him what he really cares for…more majors.  Remember this is the guy who won the 2006 Masters with two drivers in his bag.  His garage is so full of previous game changing equipment iterations-the clutter must resemble Thomas Edison’s workshop in his prime.

We recall his brief interlude with the broomstick last year that was discarded with dismay.  The claw putting grip seemed to be to his liking and some of the moss magic returned.  Then he abandoned the claw a few weeks ago to embrace the oversized Super Stroke 3.0 Slim putting grip that once again seemed to make the 3-footers less harrowing.  But, as it has been throughout his career, his driver has been his dybbuk and errant drive positions have made it impossible for him to score consistently in the sixties.  Witness his T-54 in the Masters with at a course with virtually no rough to speak of.

Enter the “Phrankenwood”.  With the help of the Callaway equipment gurus Phil has put together a hybrid driver/three wood.  Almost a modern Brassie it has a three-wood 250cc head, most modern drivers are the full 460cc’s, driver loft and shaft at 8.5 degrees and 45 inches respectively.  From the mouth of Evan Gibbs, manager of Callaway’s performance analysis group, “the key for Phil was getting a club that let him hit down on the ball slightly (his personal preference) while also producing low spin and the ability to move the ball in both directions”.

Through two rounds it is frankly doing what he wants it to do.  “I like to hit shots…carving it certain ways to pins, changing trajectories, and so forth.  This driver allows me to do that, to hit different shots….and it reacts the same way as my irons”.  If he wins this week you can bet Callaway will have the Phrankenwood on shelves at Dick’s Sporting Goods across the nation by The Players.

May, 2013

Woodmont Country Club does not have a par three course like Augusta National or Bandon Dunes.  Yet this weekend our club hosted a Three Par Competition with over 60 of our members in attendance turning our storied North Course into a 2115 yard Par 54 championship venue.

After a Grill Room wide search, the D & D Design team, in their first collaborative effort together, was tapped to create an intriguing array par three holes with a blend of the characteristics of the Golden Age and a touch of modern design.  Using alternative routing the team discovered holes with playing lines never imagined by the original designer Alfred Tull back in 1950 .  Like all timeless designs, holes like Ode to Pine Valley, Redan, Blind Man’s Bluff, The Road Hole, Ball Washer, and Tear Bucket brought out the best the topography had to offer and provided long time members with shot challenges they had never experienced before.

Throw in chilly temperatures, a steady breeze off the Rockville Court house, and slick greens with double digit downhill readings and it was all the field could handle.  There was a lot of head shaking, mumbling, and staring up at the heavens as players meandered to the next tee.

For the men and women competing for gross and net honors holes ranging from 75 to 190 yards brought imagination and the full use of their shot making skills into play.

Ode to Pine Valley-160 yards of carry over rough, trees, and a waste area of macadam rock and dirt-would feel right at home in Camden, N.J.

Gooseless, an homage to the tireless work of our Border Collie, had a phone booth pin location which only a man with a red cape could get at.

A true Redan this required a deft right to left curve landing softly on the top tier feeding to the pin below.

Pondering the line on the Tree Hugger seventh.

The green staff showed no mercy in setting Sunday pins throughout.

Pinball, in the finest Irish tradition, was a blind three-story pitch from 90 yards  requiring the creative use of side and back cushions to get a look at birdie.

Tear Bucket- a deft running pitch over water, rock wall, and a five-foot transition in the green to a shelved pin.

As you can see, the crew had the bucket surrounded.

At Wooten’s Worry players had to focus beyond the drop dead beauty of this green complex and hit one with sufficient enthusiasm to carry the false front and stay below the hole for a reasonable chance to convert a par.

At The End  the back bunker, which rarely comes into play on the normal line of this finishing hole, is the first hurdle. A green that steeply pitches away from this line means an effective shot has to be played away from the flag and rely on a ground fade to get it close.

All I can say is that based on the exit polls of the participants, this unique competition is a tradition in the making.

April, 2013

It has taken over a half a century to correct one of the great statistical anomalies in golf.  Australia, a sporting nation with a rich tradition of golfing champions, had never had one of it’s own fitted for a Green Jacket.  Until now.

Adam Scott, with a dramatic display of unflappable shot making and clutch putting, won the coveted Masters prize burying a 12-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole against two-time major champion Angel Cabrera.

Besides setting the historical record back on it’s keel, Scott swept away with his broom stick putter the haunting memory of his fold at last year’s Open Championship at Lytham and the notion that a guy with rock star looks and the talent to match could not win the big one.

On a soggy day in Georgia the leader board was full of Australian flags with Jason Day, Marc Leishman, and Adam Scott jockeying for position down the back nine with Cabrera, Tiger, and Sneds.  But most fell victim to the change of pace of rain-soaked greens or the rapid pace of their own heartbeats.

In the end it was just two guys-the Argentine and the Aussie-who played a sequence of riveting shots over the last four holes of regulation and two playoff holes in a most dramatic finish at a place known for dramatic finishes.  It would be a charismatic mano-a-mano duel of two of the most-liked characters on the global golf scene.

After a birdie on fifteen got him to 8-under Scott edged the hole on sixteen and settled for par, parred seventeen from the mayor’s office, and then set the mark at 9-under as he snuck in a dramatic 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th with Angel watching from the fairway behind.

Cabrera had a wrestling match with the five pars on the back nine and had fallen out of the lead until he buried a 20-footer on the pivotal par 3 sixteenth to get back to 8-under.  He burned the edge on seventeen and made a par.  After watching the hoopla of Scott’s heroics in front of him on 18 this great champion hitched up his pants and did his best Arnie imitation stuffing his approach from 165 to three feet to set off the crowd again and force the playoff with a matching birdie.

It almost ended in Angel’s favor on the first playoff hole when his birdie chip from in front of the green did a drive by, staring down into the cup before slipping by the right edge to the agony of the green side patrons.  The theater continued on the second playoff hole where both players nuked their drives and hit articulate irons to set up a putting duel on the stage of the tenth green.  Angel stroked another perfect putt, up the hill with a three-foot break from about 20-feet, just to see it skim the right edge.  The golf gods denied him again.

With the sage Stevie Williams hovering over his shoulder, a man with a closet full of positive Major experience under his previous employer, Scott heeded the advice and slipped the game winner into the front of the hole setting off a nuclear celebration down under.

Like so many of his country’s golfing greats Scott has won all over the world.  Nine wins on the PGA Tour, seven on the European Tour including the Alfred Dunhill in 2001, the Players Championship in 2004, the Tour Championship in 2005, the Australian Open in 2009, the WGC Bridgestone in 2011, and the Australian Masters last fall and now the coveted championship of the state of Georgia.

Scotty stands alone (wikipedia.org)

At the tender age of 32, with the old Tiger swing, the old Tiger caddie, and a refreshed confidence on the short grass with his walking stick, Scott has moved to third in the world ranking behind Tiger and Rory and is poised to fill his cabinet with many more major championship trophies over the next 10 years.  Kangaroos rule!!!!!

April, 2013

Brandt Snedeker says that your scorecard is not safe at Augusta until you have played Amen Corner.  The travail that your scorecard can experience in the three hole stretch of 11, 12, and 13 is well documented in Master’s lore.

Sneds entered the corner at one-under after a roller coaster front side with four birdies, a bogey, and a double.  So some trepidation was in order when he hit his approach into eleven and saw it disappear into the green side pond.  A pitch and a marvelous 20ish footer to “save” bogie had him gasping for air.

His approach into the short par three at twelve did not provide any oxygen as it carried through the green leaving a delicate pitch back at the shallow green and the water.  But from there he executed a near impossible up and down to save a par.

On the risk-reward par five thirteenth his second shot found Rae’s Creek but he drew a playable lie in the lush grass within the hazard.  A dexterous up and down to make a birdie and Brandt had somehow negotiated Amen Corner even par with his C iron game.

Coolest part is that I could enjoy all of this from the comfort of my desk at work.  Visiting the Masters website www.masters.com and clicking on Live At Amen Corner I watched every group negotiate this slippery corner of the course.  It is free and gives you the full HD experience with CBS/Golf Channel camera coverage and their announcers doing the play-by-play.

With his scorecard in tact Snedeker slipped back into cruise control and, with a birdie on the fifteenth, he posted a respectable two-under 70 for the opening round of the 2013 Masters.  If he goes on to have success this weekend he will look back with a bit of reverence to how he managed to get through Amen Corner unscathed on Thursday.

April, 2013

Kootch and Rose…….sounds like a new brand of a southern comfort whiskey. Instead both, in their young thirties entering the prime of their golfing careers, are rising stars in the game steadily building resumes that have put them solidly in the top ten of the World Golf Rankings.

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The two burst on the golf radar screen at the same time in 1998 as pedigree Amateurs elbowing their way into the major Championships that year. They had competed against each other at the Walker Cup at Quaker Ridge the previous year and became friends when they played a practice round together at Loch Lomand the week before the 1998 Open Championship. Kootch introduced his 20 year-old telegenic smile to our TV screens with flash performances in The Masters (T21) and U.S. Open (T14) that year. Rose stunned the British golf fans as an 18 year-old holing out a dramatic wedge shot from the rough on the last hole to tie for fourth at Royal Birkdale.

But then the waiting began. As is common with young players both of them hit the pot hole laden developmental road soon after they turned pro. Kucher won the Honda Classic in 2002 but did not hoist a trophy in the winner’s circle again until Turning Stone in 2009. Justin Rose suffered the indignity of missing the cut in his first 21 pro events but broke through to win The Dunhill in 2002 and three more times on the European Tour before he won The Memorial on the PGA Tour at Jack’s Place in 2010.

The breakout year for both of them was 2010-Kootch won the Fed Ex Barclays in 2010, The Players in 2011, and finished top ten in the World Gold Championships 7 times since then including his win at the Accenture Match Play this year over Hunter Mahan.
In the majors the last three years he has been top ten 4 times with a T3 at The Masters last year. For Rose it was the Fed Ex BMW in 2011 and 4 top tens in WGC events including the Cadillac Championship at Doral in 2011. In 2012 he finished tied for eighth at The Masters and third at the PGA.

Between them they have 13 PGA and European Tour wins, 2 FedEx Cup event victories, 2 WGC wins, 5 Ryder and President Cup appearances, 5 World Cup appearances, and a Players Championship.

So what is missing……a Major. The two are at the top of that infamous list of the best players in the world yet to win a Major. But I sense the wait could be over for them over the next 24 months. Both have been in top form so far this year and I would not be surprised to see Bubba slipping that Green Jacket over the shoulders of one of the distillery brothers this April.

March, 2013